Plato and Utopia - Book Report/Review Example

A person will only love something if they are interested in it and will only protect something if they love it. For full development, a person must, therefore, develop their physical ability, their emotional ability, and their intellectual ability. Taking this one step further, Plato applied these ideas to the greater society, dividing the classes by the physical workers, the emotional protectors or soldiers, and the intellectual rulers. Although Plato indicated that he would make the ruling class equally accessible to all, his plan to separate the children from their parents at an early age in order to give them all equal education included a suggestion that the children of the ruling class would be expected to reach these levels while the children of the lesser classes would not be expected to be up to the challenge.

While this is still a seemingly bigoted approach to education, incorporating the class expectations of an authoritarian society, Plato leaves some room open for ‘wild’ talent among the lower groups while still proposing a system that necessarily weeds out all opposition to the state well before any real power is achieved.